Last year, the Cyclones went 15-5-3 and defeated the Mountain Home Bombers to win the class 6A state championship. The Lady Cyclones bumped off the Searcy Lady Lions and celebrated a 12-8 season with a 6A state championship.

For many of the seniors, it’s the highlight of their career and could only be surpassed by doing it all again this year.

Russellville will celebrate Senior Night on Monday at Cyclone Stadium. Thursday’s celebration was cut short Wednesday for the Lady Cyclones, when the Little Rock Hall Lady Warriors canceled their match at 5:15 p.m., citing not enough players. The chance of inclement weather postponed both the boys and girls matches until Monday.

Russellville will honor its seniors in a ceremony between the Cyclones and the Lady Cyclones games. Monday will also be Soccer Night for the kids.

Head coach Kelly Young said the coaching staff was searching for a replacement team and would continue looking until about noon today.

“It felt like all our hard work had got us there,” Lady Cyclones senior Jenny Mendoza said. “It was amazing. We pushed ourselves as a team and we went out there and we won a state championship. Nobody can take that pride away from us.”

“We had a good season all year that year,” Cyclones senior Wesley Prewett said. “We really just turned it on there at the end and we worked a lot of good, quality hours. It was awesome to see it pay off.”

Lady Cyclones head coach Kelly Young described her senior class as a “phenomenal” group, made up of leaders both on the field and off — Shannon Hocker, Mendoza, Ashley Black, Xiomara Sanches and Meredith Scott.

“They’re just a great group as far as attitude goes and just being good leaders,” Young said. “On the field we have Shannon and Ashley and off the field we have Jenny. Jenny makes sure everyone is taken care of. She’s like the glue on this team.”

Mendoza’s “glue” is so strong that the team has taken to calling her “Momma Jenny.”

“She has everything you might need — sunscreen, bobby pins or anything, anytime,” Black explained. “She cares for everyone, no matter what year they are.”

“They’re all so different than one another,” Cyclones head coach Jared Fuller said. “They all have their own gifts that I’m going to miss. They’re so athletically gifted and their individual characters are going to be something I miss and the entire team misses.”

Prewett and McNeill lead both on the field and off, but they’ve also been in competition with each other since the first grade, when McNeill first moved to Russellville. Prewett is likely the valadictorian for the class of 2013. McNeill is one step behind him.

“I think one of the reasons I’ve been successful is because of him [Prewett],” McNeil said. “We’ve been good friends since the first grade, and it’s always been a competition between us. I think each of us pushing each other has made for academic success for both of us.”

Prewett echoed McNeill’s sentiments, but added Fuller and soccer in general — for all it’s demanding hours and long workouts — have helped him race for the top academically.

“It’s [soccer] a mental game,” Fuller added. “A smarter kid has an advantage. I don’t want to put down other sports, they take a lot of thinking as well. That in-the-game mental decision making can put you a step above other players if you’re a smart player.”

Most of Russellville’s losses have come at the hands of the bigger Class 7A schools that Russellville shares the 7A/6A-Central Conference with. When playoff time rolls around, the Cyclones become a team from the 6A-East for the tournament, where they will meet their biggest challenge — Searcy.

“Searcy won it four years straight once,” Prewett said. “We want to be like that. Last year’s seniors and this year’s seniors look at this like we are setting up a dynasty. It would be great to get a repeat. It was great to do it the first time, but we’d like to begin a dynasty.”

Lady Cyclones win another shootout

In similar fashion to their last home match, Russellville Lady Cyclones had to come from behind again to force a 1-1 tie in regulation, then outscored Fort Smith Southside 5-3 in a penalty kick shootout on Tuesday at Cyclone Stadium.

The Lady Rebels got on the board in the first half off a corner kick, but Russellville picked up its level of play in the second half and scored the equalizer midway through the final period, when sophomore Katie Winberry scored on a shot from outside the box after a strong pass from senior Shannon Hocker.

With neither team being able to score the decisive goal during the remainder of regulation, the match was then decided by penalty kicks. Southside missed on its second attempt and Sydnee Stokes, Maria Marasco, Ashley Black, Ashley O’Dell and Winberry with the clinching shot were all successful for the Lady Cyclones.

The win over the 7A/6A-Central Conference co-leaders gave RHS a 6-7 league record.

Southside 5, Cyclones 3

The Russellville Cyclones surrendered three goals in the first 12 minutes and had to play from behind the rest of the match against Fort Smith Southside.

Jose Crisostomo, Nathan McNeill and Taylor Allen scored goals for RHS (8-8, 6-7 7A/6A-Central Conference), but head coach Jared Fuller said the Cyclones came out sluggish and had to play catch-up all night.

“We were liking our run before that game,” Fuller said. “We were happy about our defending, so I told the guys not to forget the bad things and continue our good defending and good attacks. We have to put it all together against (Little Rock) Hall and take it (momentum) into the state playoffs. We’re not going to take this one lightly.”